My Bones, My Lesson
by WildFlower084
Summary: Booth learns a valuable lesson, one that life keeps trying to teach us but that we still take for granted. [WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH!]


**A/N: Got no clue what possessed me to write this piece. I guess I'm into tragic tales lately. Not sure why... maybe I'm a little depressed. Who knows! ;-) I promise this is my last one. I'll go back to happy stories right after I get this one out of my system. Anyway, read only if you're up to it. I won't judge you if you don't.**

**Warning: Character death!**

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I learned a lesson tonight. A lesson I wish I never had to learn but, unfortunately, life has a way of throwing things at you when you least expect it. Tonight was one of these things. I can honestly say that I hadn't expected it.

Everything was going fine. We were talking, I made her laugh. All it took was one brief look away from the road.

I heard it more than felt it. Something colliding with the SUV. Something hard. I heard the rustling of the metal together. I heard a window busting and heard glass shattering. White surrounded me as the airbags popped open.

I waited for my heart to slow down before turning to my passenger. She looked at me, frightened. I could almost see her heart racing inside her chest. Her eyes were round, she looked pale in the darkness of the night and I could see her shaking slightly.

In the background, I could hear sirens blarring. I stopped breathing. Were they coming here? Coming for us? I turned around and looked out the back window. I could only make out some lights but I had no way of knowing if they were from an ambulance or the police. I looked back in front. The small car was smashed against my bumper. The windshield was shattered and behind the airbag, I could see the top of a head.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the vehicle. My passenger stayed put. I walked over to the small car and looked through the window. The driver was facing away from me but I already knew what I'd find on the other side. A bloodied face.

I stepped away from the car when the sirens grew louder. New sirens. The others had died down in the night. What happened next happened so quickly, my brain barely registred it.

Paramedics arrived, called by god knows who, immediately followed by a firetruck and two police cars. They all gathered around me and one of the MTs walked over to me.

"I just need to check you over." The man said.

I assured him that the driver of the small car was more hurt than me and required urgent attention. The paramedic simply walked away.

A cop pulled me away from the wreck and I joined my date on the sidewalk. She was wrapped in a blanket, a little shook up but fine. We watched as the fire fighters cut the top of the car in order to take the driver out of the prison that had become its vehicle.

My eyes fell on the license plate. My stomach did a backflip. I looked the car over, this time more closely. It looked vaguely familiar. My heart climbed in my throat. I felt nauseous. I fought the feeling of simply losing my dinner right here. I took a few steps forward but an officer pulled me back. By now, we had been join by two other police cars. I pushed the officer away and walked determinedly to the car. One glance in the backseat made me see the familiar bag on the car floor. I rounded the car just as the paramedic was laying the lifeless body onto the stretcher. An MT pushed a strand of hair aside. Even through the blood I could recognize her. Bones. My Bones.

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The gentle beating of the monitor keeps me company as I sit in her room. She has tubes everywhere and her beautiful face is hidden behind a bush of wires. The doctor said she wouldn't survive the night. I have more faith than that in her. Bones is a fighter. She wouldn't give up on life so easily.

I replay the whole scene in my head once again, like the real thing wasn't enough. I just get a twisted kick out of torturing myself. But thinking about what happens makes me feel restless. I get up.

I pace the room a few times, stopping every few seconds to look at the monitor for some kind of change. Nothing. Zip. The monitor's as stubborn as she is. I sit back down. If I keep pacing the way I am, I'll make a hole in the ground.

I get up once again and pul the chair closer to her bed. I grab one of her hands. It lays lifeless in my own. She looks so vulnerable under all these wires and tubes. I rub the inside of her palm, hoping to at least get some reaction from her. I get nothing.

I sigh. Maybe the doctors were right. Maybe she won't survive the night. My eyes water and I curse myself for being so weak.

"Bones..." I whisper, unable to speak any louder. "Bones, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen."

It's all my fault. If I had kept my eyes on the road, I would have seen the light turn red and I wouldn't have attempted to turn left. Bones had nothing to do in that accident. She just happened to cross the intersection at a bad moment.

I try not to think about what's coming to me in the next few weeks. My fate all depends on if my partner survives. If she does, the worst I can get is my license suspended and a loss of demerit points. If she doesn't, I'll be charged with criminal negligence. I hope she survives. Not because the consequences won't be as bad, but because I don't think I'd be able to live without her and live with the knowledge that it is my fault she isn't there with me.

There are so many things I should have told her before today. And now, I might not even get the chance to tell them. To tell her how much I cared about her, how much I loved her and, most of all, how much I felt proud to be in her life, to be her friend, her confident. But now she'll never know all of these things. And it's all my fault.

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I awake to the sound of moving around me. I look up sleepily to find a nurse changing the IV bag. She looks at me, sympathically. I look away. I don't need anybody's sympathy. My eyes immediately go to Bones and the monitor beside her. She's still breathing and her heart is still beating. She survived the night. I just knew she would.

The nurse seems to read my thoughts.

"Don't get your hopes up. Her heart might have survived but it doesn't mean her brain did."

I feel a stab of pain in my heart and I squeeze my partner's hand. The nurse smiles at me before walking out of the room. I turn my attention back to Bones. I don't know how long I sit, staring at her, but a knock at the door startles me. It's the doctor. He needs to do some tests with Bones and tells me I need to leave the room. I get up mechanically and walk out, into the hallway.

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_Brain dead._ The words echo in my head like a broken record. Brain dead. She's bread dead and it's because of me. Angela, Hodgins, Zach, Russ and his girlfriend are in the room with me. We need to make a decision. The doctors gave us twenty-four hours. We only have two left.

Russ is for it. Angela isn't. Hodgins would be for it if it wasn't for Angela. Zach is torn. It goes against his beliefs, I think. I'm against it. But in the end, Russ is the one who makes the decision since he is family. So I guess whatever he decides will go. I brush a few tears from my eyes before nodding to Russ. He calls the doctor into the room. I hear Angela squeak beside me.

I close my eyes when the doctor unplugs everything. I just can't bring myself to watch. I only open my eyes when I hear him tell Russ he is sorry for his lost. I feel like crying "How about us! We were her family too!". Beside me, Angela is sobbing and Hodgins is trying to console her. Russ has a blank expression on her face and Zach looks confused.

I suddenly feel weak. My knees feel like they are going to give out from under me. I hear voices in the distance, asking me if I'm okay. I feel pressure on my shoulder and I know someone's trying to reassure me. My eyes are unfocused as I dash towards the bathroom. I let myself fall to the cold floor and, bending over the toilet, I finally empty myself of all the pain these past two days had caused me.

I lay back against the wall, weeping. I must look ridiculous but I don't care anymore. I lost my love and my life.

I hear footsteps and I look up to find a teary and red-eyed Angela looking down at me.

"I never got the chance to tell her how I feel." I say.

In a second, Angela is down beside me and wrapping her arms around my shoulder. I let myself be consoled by her.

I learned a lesson the other night. As small as it may be, it is the most precious one we can ever learn. Unfortunately, we don't always apply it. We take things for granted, thinking they'll always be there when in fact, they could disappear any time.

Later I found out that, the night I killed Bones, she was actually on her way to my apartment. She had something to important to tell me. I'll never know what that important thing was. Not even Angela knows. Bones has taken her secret with her to her grave.

And I... I'm due in court in five minutes. I'm not sure what my sentence is going to be but it certainly won't be as bad as living the rest of my life, feeling guilty about the way my relationship with my partner ended.


End file.
